HOSTED NOTABLE VISITORS TO THE SETTLEMENT

From 1856 to 1858, King had ample opportunity to show several notable visitors how industrious, refined and educated the residents of the Elgin Settlement were.  It must be understood that although Rev. King often initiated the progress of the settlement and strove to provide opportunities, it was not compulsary for settlers to go to school or church.  The Elgin Settlement thrived because the settlers themselves built their community and respected Kings efforts on their behalf.

In 1856, Horace Greeley founder and editor of The York Times sent one of his correspondants to Buxton.  The correspondant recorded the following:

• 200 families consisting of approximately 800 persons
  • most have paid off their homesteads or prepared to do so this year
• 1,025 acres cleared and fenced; 200 ready to cultivate in the Spring
  • 315 acres corn
  • 260 acres wheat
  • 70 acres wheat
  • 80 acres potatoes
  • 120 acres miscellaneous (beans, turnips, etc.)
• farm livestock - 200 cows, 80 oxen, 300 hogs, 52 horses
• 2 schools consisting of 180 children enrolled and 112 enrolled in church school
• comparisons were made to 2 new white government settlements where aid was provided in provisions and equipment but failed
  
  "We left Buxton convinced we had seen one of those rare men who by single minded devotion to a worthy object not only accomplish great ends, but ennoble our common humanity."

In 1856, the Buxton community built a 120' pavillion on the lawn of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church for a celebration .  Over a thousand Buxton settlers served the same number of guests, including the Elgin Association Board of Directors.  Guest speakers were invited from Toronto.  One of the guests in attendance was the future 5th Earl of Spencer, John Poyntz Spencer.  Guests were served from the food produced in Buxton, which a scant seven years earlier had been a wilderness.

In 1858, Henry Christy Esq. of London, England and a member of The Aboriginal Society of North America visited both Elgin Settlement and several native American settlements.  Christy was most impressed with the self-sufficient qualities of the Buxton settlers.